Crossed Lines Start to Blur
by whileawaythehours
Summary: Six years after the war, Draco Malfoy has forsaken the family fortune and ideals, and Luna Lovegood is harboring secrets from her time spent in captivity in the Malfoy dungeons. Luna's secrets become out of control, and when things start to happen, what choices will they make and how could it affect the entire wizarding world?
1. Chapter 1

Draco Malfoy woke up in his flat in a cold sweat; images from the war and all that led up to it had been plaguing his sleep. He ran a hand through his unkempt blonde hair, shaking off what he could of the unpleasant memories. Unfortunately, with them flew away the last chances he had of getting any more sleep that night. Even though it had been six years since that day that ended the war with the death of Voldemort, nights like this were not uncommon for anyone, let alone Draco. His almost-role in Dumbledore's death had bothered him for more nights than he was likely to admit, and so had thoughts of Voldemort in his own home, threatening his family, himself, and anyone or anything he appeared close to.

With a huge, releasing sigh, Draco pulled himself out of bed. He fumbled for a moment on the bedside table before his fingers closed around his wand. He muttered a quick "lumos" before padding as quietly as he could to the bathroom. The flat below had a small dog who was annoying at the best of times, but at night the thing had the hearing of a bat, and the smallest noise would get it to barking incessantly. With a glance at the clock, he realized it was later than he thought, thank Merlin for that. The hand on the wizarding clock was somewhere towards the end of the section that Blaise had jokingly added, marked "quiet reflection." Blaise Zabini knew his best friend well, and he knew that most days, Draco woke up around the three o'clock mark, despite not needing to be up until closer to five.

Today, he counted himself lucky. He would need all the sleep he could get before heading into the office. He decided to spend the last bit of his "quiet reflection" time in the worn leather recliner in his living room. In his hands, he held a chipped mug full of muggle instant coffee. So much had changed about Draco Malfoy. Gone was the egotistical, spoiled, rich little prat that everyone thought they knew at Hogwarts. The man slowly sipping his coffee was infinitely older; at least psychologically. He had grown into someone who knew no boundaries between classes. Muggles were no longer filth, and he wasn't so sure that he had ever actually believed that they were. The word "mudblood" was part of a foolish, cruel little boy's vocabulary, and had no place in the words of the man in the chair.

He was 24, and he was a force to be reckoned with. He had honed many skills, and had spent a good deal of time in a muggle gym honing his body as well. But the most sharp of his assets was his mind. He hadn't been second in their year for nothing. But he was also a Slytherin. He was a master in the art of cunning, one that would have made his father proud.

What would not have made his father proud, however, was what he had done with the Malfoy fortune. As soon as the war ended, he had surrendered every single knut and property to the ministry, besides a comparatively small sum that he used to open the business he had now, ironically in wizarding investments. He had cooperated fully, answering every question asked of him with honesty. It had been his information that had brought down the resistance there at the end. Because of that, his "donation" to the ministry, and the fact that he lowered his wand rather than kill Dumbledore, he had been let go with full amnesty.

It was after that pardon that he bought the little shop in Diagon Alley, remodeled the entire thing into very classy, high end offices, and set about trying to find someone to run it with him. He had hoped for a partnership with Blaise, but his dark Italian friend wasn't really ready for responsibility or commitment. Draco had shrugged it off, clapping Blaise on the shoulder, saying, "Hey, everyone grieves their own way." Blaise sometimes hated how shrewd and perceptive his friend was.

After much searching, Draco found Harper Camden. She was young, beautiful, highly intelligent, and a pureblood. Draco didn't care that she was a pureblood, really, but it helped that every pureblood child learns early on how to handle the family estates. Harper was also American, which meant that she knew how to handle things from a different angle. That had been the advantage Draco needed to get ahead, as more and more of the old wizarding families were finally branching out into some international and muggle investment options.

But now, Harper was leaving. She had been offered a job at the Quibbler, of all places. After the war, zany old Xenophilius Lovegood had gained in popularity. Everyone wanted to read the paper that had reported the truth. One afternoon, he had come into the office, looking to figure out exactly what his fortune had come to, and Harper had suggested a column on international affairs. Something, she said, that would let everyone know what is going on in the other wizarding communities, so that England wasn't so cut off from the rest of the world. Xeno had hired her on the spot as his travelling reporter, offering her a salary almost twice what Draco was able to offer her.

Draco wasn't about to begrudge her of the dream she had told him about long before, and so his only request was that she find her own replacement. He had taken over all of the accounts for the time being, allowing her time to interview candidates and work out the details of her new position. It was tiring, overseeing so many accounts and trying to fit them all into an already very busy schedule. He would be glad to get the replacement in the office and ready to handle some of the accounts on her own. Harper had thrown him into a frenzy when she had sent him an owl the other day saying:

Draco-

Stop bugging me, will you? I've found her. But I'm not telling

you who she is! You will find out when she gets there on

Thursday. She's a little... unorthodox. But don't you dare

fire her! You wanted someone who would look at things from

a new perspective like I did. This girl is it, Draco. She's a genius.

Whatever past misconceptions you have about her, forget them.

I'm not even kidding. You need to give her a chance. She's going

to do big things for business. I would stake my life on it. Just

give her six months. If it's not working for you then, we'll talk.

-Harper

Draco was not happy about waiting. He knew the girl? "Past misconceptions. Who the hell could she be? It had better not be Pansy or one of the Greengrass girls," he thought to himself angrily. He looked back up at the clock and figured that it was late enough to start getting ready for work. Begrudgingly, he apparated to work and went into Harper's office to look over the easier files that they had chosen to get the new girl acclimated.

After a few minutes, he felt someone watching him, and turned to see her standing there. Her blonde curls were half up, held back with a beautiful comb. She was smiling a half smile full of wonder at him, peering through thick, odd, brightly colored glasses. Dangling from her ears were radishes, of all things. Her hippie skirt was in earth tones of brown and green, and the fitted white, short sleeved blouse accentuated slight curves he had never noticed in Hogwarts. He looked down at her feet to note with relief that she was indeed wearing shoes. Or boots, rather. They were brown leather, went up her calves to fold over at the top, and over the leg of them were thin belts of bronze chain and the same leather of the boots. On her tiny little wrists were bangles. Lots of them.

She raised one pale eyebrow at him and chuckled, a full, melodic, spritely sound. It hit him in the gut, twisting his insides as memories of this same girl came back to him. She had been in his father's dungeon with old Ollivander and a few others. Never once did her spirit break, no matter what any of the Death Eaters did to her. She was beautiful even then, when she was malnourished, dirty, and beaten. But it was her unwavering faith in all things good that had gotten to him then. And now, to hear that sound that had haunted him in that place; the sound of a light in captivity trying desperately to shine bright enough for herself and the others. And to hear it in his office? It was unnerving.

She tilted her head, watching the emotions play across his usually stoic face. Eventually, she held out a hand to him, her smile growing. When she opened her mouth to speak, it wasn't quite the voice he remembered. The voice had matured. Hell, it ought to have. She had been 16 then. Now, the voice was older, but it was no less airy and bright.

With that somehow-still-innocent smile on her face, she greeted him softly and happily. "Hello, Draco."

Luna Lovegood was Harper's replacement.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a rough few years for Luna. She had finished Hogwarts alongside Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and some of the others. The classes had been significantly smaller, both because of the deaths during the war, and because so many had decided not to come back. Luna was glad that some of her friends had the opportunity to finish despite "taking a break" to hunt horcruxes. Hermione, of course, had finished top of their class. Harry and Ron had gone on to become Aurors, Ginny had signed on with the Holyhead Harpies, and Hermione had completed her training and become one of the best healers St. Mungo's had ever seen. She and Ron were still dating, and Harry and Ginny had gotten married the previous Spring.

Luna had gone home, packed a few belongings into a suitcase, and rented a small flat in Muggle London. She lived there for exactly one year, moving back home when the lease was up. During that year, she visited her friends often. She collected articles from the Daily Prophet, most of them about the "cleaning up" of wizarding society. Everyone had their reasons for following the story, but Luna's reasons weren't what everyone expected.

What Luna really wanted was to talk to her captors. She was heartbroken when she read the article outlining the trial of Lucius Malfoy. This time around Lucius wasn't able to plead the Imperius curse, no matter how hard he tried. He had been tried, and sentenced. The trial lasted less than an hour, after which the Wizengamot had ordered him straight to Azkaban for the kiss. They hadn't even given him time with his family, although it wasn't really necessary. Draco didn't want to see his father, and Narcissa had disappeared immediately following the battle at Hogwarts. If Luna had known Draco's thoughts on the matter, she would have agreed with him that Narcissa had most likely run off to a property that was kept strictly off the books, in a place that was tropical.

If Narcissa had been around, Luna would have wanted to talk to her, too. She longed so badly to tell each and every one of her captors that she forgave them, and to talk about what had gone on during that dark time of her life. She still had nightmares. She had been beaten regularly, tortured often, starved as a general rule, and on occasion, taken to fulfill the baser desires of some of the men. But the worst part for her was the experimentation. She had no idea what Voldemort had been trying to accomplish, but he had ordered some of his most intelligent Death Eaters to try to do something with her. Something that, she was sure, had he had more time, would have been perfected and used to gain an advantage over the "light" side.

Luna hadn't been able to figure out what they were trying to do, or what they were trying to change about her. All she knew was that Snape would sometimes slip her pain potions, or healing potions while administering the latest concoction. Once she was sure he had given her some Felix Felicitas. She had needed the liquid luck that night, that was for sure, as the Death Eaters had been particularly cruel. She never lost hope, and she felt like she owed that to her Potions Professor.

In the years since, Luna had visited Snape's grave every year on the anniversary of the Battle. She would sit there for a good while, just talking to him. It didn't matter to her that he had been an angry, bitter man. She felt that he had been misunderstood, and that all he had really needed was a friend. Although he was gone now, she still liked talking to him. It made her feel like she was giving something back to him now, by being a friend to him despite everything.

Once Luna's one year lease was up, she packed her meager belongings back into her bag, and went back home. Her father was glad to see her, because by then sales had picked up on the Quibbler, and he couldn't handle it by himself anymore. She ran the finances, subscriptions, and wrote a few columns herself. When Xenophilius had taken the financial matter to Draco, it had been easy for Draco to figure because of Luna's work, even though Draco didn't know that. Luna had been relieved when her father had offered Harper the job, and even more relieved to find out that the woman was more than capable and willing to take over her part of the job, also.

It hadn't been Luna's idea to work for Xeno, and it had been a far cry from her passion. She wanted to work with people on a more personal level, teaching them about muggles and other witches and wizards in different countries. So when Harper had suggested in one of their meetings that she and Luna do a job trade, Luna was overjoyed. When she found out that she would be working closely with Draco Malfoy, the one person still alive and accessible on her list of captors, she burst into tears of joy. Harper had chalked it up to one of Luna's oddities.

On her first day of work, Luna had debated for quite a while on whether or not to wear shoes. She knew that back in Hogwarts, Draco and his lackeys had been the ones behind her missing footwear more often than not. At the time, she had blamed the nargles because she didn't want to give them an inkling that she knew it was them. It was easier to shrug it off than to give Harry and Ron another reason to go looking for a fight with the blond Slytherin. Now, however, she had debated leaving them off for old time's sake. After much deliberation, she chided herself.

"Don't be silly, Luna," she said out loud. "You want to make a good impression. This job is prestigious."

So in the end, she slipped into her favorite boots and apparated to Diagon Alley, walking the rest of the way to the office.


	3. Chapter 3

Somehow Luna's greeting had been enough to snap Draco out of his shock-induced reverie. He smiled at her; an actual smile, not a smirk. The smile was something he had learned since the war ended, and Luna's own smile grew at the sight of it. They stood there for a moment longer, regarding each other. One of the things he had always admired about Luna was her unwavering ability to just look at someone, to study them, and not care what they thought. Now, he took the hand she offered, and rather than shake it as she expected, he pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles.

"Miss Lovegood," he greeted. "I must say, I'm glad you are not one of my Slytherin classmates. Or Granger. When Harper said that I knew you, I was worried." He regarded her shrewdly for a moment. "But, I have to confess, I am still worried."

Luna calmly shook her head. "Draco, I won't embarrass you."

With surprise, he answered, "It's not just that, Lovegood. But in Hogwarts, you were always the girl with her head in the clouds, going on about niggles and wackturds or whatever they are."

At that, Luna giggled. "And you say you're not worried about me embarrassing you?"

He smirked. "No, I said I wasn't just worried about that."

He leaned back against the desk, mussing his hair with one hand, while his other tapped light patterns on the wood of the desk. He had looked away from her, and was apparently studying the chair she was standing next to. He wasn't sure what it was, but he actually wasn't worried at all about Luna being here. With a big sigh, his gaze found her again.

"I'm worried about you being in over your head. Have you ever handled investments? Have you ever travelled outside of Britain?" he thought about that for a moment and amended, "and Scotland doesn't count, because that was just for Hogwarts. What about talking to a particularly stubborn old codger, trying to explain why something he had been raised to reject is a better idea than what his forefathers have always done?" What Draco didn't add was; Can you keep your head out of the clouds long enough to keep files straight so that our clients make money instead of losing it?

Luna chuckled at his questions. She steepled her fingers in her lap, flexing them in and out as she thought of a response that she hoped would answer his unasked questions, as well. After an agonizingly long time for Draco, she looked back up at him. She reached up and removed those absurd glasses before answering.

"There once was a girl with a father everyone thought was crazy," she started. "Perhaps he was. She learned quite young that in order to keep the two of them fed while still funding her papa's expeditions, someone other than her papa needed to look after the finances. Maybe invest some money, also. She had never learned how to do such things, but she had always been one of the top students at Hogwarts. She was sure she could figure it out. The one thing that took a little longer was learning to get her papa to agree to the changes. He wanted nothing more than to throw the money in an enchanted box, and bury it in the backyard."

The spritely girl fell silent. She studied Draco for a while before continuing. "It took some convincing, but once it was done, the papa and the girl were both able to go on wonderful expeditions all over the world. While the papa studied the creatures, the girl studied the people. She left for a little while, hoping to find herself, and when she came back, the papa's investments were such a mess that it took a few years to sort them out. Especially since she was busy dealing with the business end of her papa's paper, too, along with writing for the paper. She wrote wonderful pieces on the creatures her daddy loved so much, but her heart wasn't in it. She liked dealing with the finances. And she wanted to do it for more people. The girl loved people, see. Muggles, Americans, Africans, all kinds of people. She loved the puzzles that they presented, when figuring what they would work best with, and so on. So one day, a girl came who had everything that our girl wanted. But she wanted everything that our girl had! So she proposed a trade."

Both of them were silent for a little while. Draco didn't know what to say to Luna after her story. She looked up at him with those huge blue eyes of hers. Finally, she shrugged, and said so softly that Draco almost didn't catch it, "So here I am."

He moved around the desk to sit down with a thoughtful frown on his face. He really didn't know what to make of her. She was an anomaly. He fiddled with a file in front of him, before handing it to her across the desk. It was her father's.

"Show me," he commanded.

They spent the entire day going over the stack of files. Luna's ideas were simplistic, surprising, and brilliant. Draco could tell already that she was an asset he had better not do anything to lose. Harper had been right in her assessment of the girl. She would do big things for business. If only he could get her to not wear those ridiculous glasses or the radish earrings. He didn't figure now was the time to be discussing that, as his stomach had just growled fiercely. The pair looked up from where they had spread out on the floor. The clock read just past 7 pm. They had been at it for just about eleven hours without stopping.

Draco stood, gathered up the last of the files, and offered a hand to Luna to help her to her feet. They both brushed themselves off and straightened the wrinkles from sitting so long. The silence between them now was companionable, and already they were moving around one another like good friends, or people who had worked together for a very long time. Luna's stomach took its turn to growl, and they both laughed. Draco shot Luna a searching glance.

"Shall we celebrate your entrance into the company?" He asked slyly.

She nodded brightly, and the two of them walked down the street together to a nice restaurant. She understood that his invitation had been that of an employer welcoming his new worker, but by the looks they were getting, no one else would have believed them. Dinner was a happy affair, with the two of them laughing together easily and often. Somewhere in the middle of dinner, they heard a camera flash, but thought nothing of it. They talked about business some, and Draco suggested to her that if things go like they had today, maybe they could make a partnership of it.

At the end of the night, Luna was giddy from the champagne and the success of the day. Draco wasn't much better. They parted ways, each going back to their respective flats with a promise of, "Same time tomorrow!"

Draco turned in early that night, knowing that the sooner he laid down to combat his thoughts, the better chance he had of falling asleep at a decent time. He slept nightmare free that night, and woke up to an owl tapping to bring in the paper. He almost tossed it aside to look at it later, but he stopped when he saw the picture on the front page. It was of him and Luna, laughing together in the restaurant.

The headline read "Malfoy Heir-Defectant Courts Looney Lovegood."

"Oh, bloody hell."


	4. Chapter 4

Luna stood next to her kitchen window, her arms wrapped around herself. The Daily Prophet lay open on the table behind her. Her light aqua, silk, short sleeved and capri length pajamas didn't do much against the morning chill coming in through the open window, but she just couldn't bring herself to move to shut it. She was shocked by the article's presence in the paper, but not at all surprised once she saw that it was Rita Skeeter that had written it. She didn't feel scandalized, or even embarrassed, but she was worried about what it would mean for her job.

Sighing, she walked towards her room to get ready. It wouldn't do to be late, especially when that Skeeter woman may have already jeopardized things for her. Just before she reached the door, an owl flew in. She recognized it as Hermione's, but she hadn't seen it in a while. After her year to herself, when she visited them frequently, she had fallen out of contact with them. She felt that they had outgrown her. All of them had steady, respectable jobs. They were starting their lives together. She worked for her father, writing about things that she was beginning to think she had only believed in for his sake. She didn't have someone to share her life with, like they had. After what had happened to her, she had needed time to heal before she could have that kind of relationship with anyone. She was still sweet, lovely, dreaming Luna. But she had grown up significantly. She and the others just hadn't grown together.

The owl grew impatient with her, and nipped her arm quite hard. When she reached to take its delivery, she understood. The envelope was a deep red, and when she broke the seal, it morphed into a mouth and immediately started yelling.

"Bloody hell, Luna, you really are Loony!" Ron's voice yelled at her. "How could you be with that bloody bastard?! He's a right selfish git, that one. He stole your shoes, Luna. Didn't you know that? It was him, not your nargles. Shut up, Hermione. You need to dump him. Right now, Luna. Can't you see I'm sending a howler, woman? Get off me! No, I'll not stop! She needs to know that she's being stupid."

There was a pause and some angry, muffled sounds. Ron's voice came back, saying, "We'll never forgive you if you stay with the ferret, Luna. Never."

The envelope snapped back into its original shape, and promptly ripped itself to shreds. Luna squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, and when she opened them, there was a determination and clarity in her gaze. She hurriedly showered and dressed for work. Today she had gone simpler with her apparel, and simply muttered a drying spell on her hair, rather than putting it up. She wore loose fitting black slacks, a baby blue, fitted, button down, short sleeved blouse that matched her eyes perfectly, a wide headband of the same color, her trademark radishes, and a pair of short black boots. She pulled on a dark grey robe to combat the chill, and then apparated.

As she stepped into the office, she took one look at Draco and burst into fits of giggles. His long sleeved button down was the same color as her shirt. His slacks were the same color as her robe. His tie was a black on black brocade, and his shoes and belt were black as well.

"Don't we make a striking pair?" she asked between giggles.

He couldn't help it, he laughed, too. Once the two had composed themselves, she sat herself in the chair opposite him at the desk. Her face was impassive as she watched him for a moment.

"Lovegood, I hope that article won't keep you from staying here," Draco started.

Luna's breath left her in a whoosh, and she let out another giggle. "Of course not, Draco." She tilted her head. "But please, if we're going to be working together," she said airily, "call me Luna."

He smiled. "So the article didn't make you uncomfortable?"

"No," she replied. "Not uncomfortable. But I was worried that you would be, and that you wouldn't want me here."

He shook his head. "You should have been a Gryffindor."

She looked at him, puzzled. "I've thought so, myself, on occasion," she said sweetly. "The sorting hat thought so, too. But I don't like the heroics, really." She turned, her gaze far away for a moment, before looking back at him. "Why do you think I should have been a Gryffindor?"

"You speak your mind, and you don't really care what other people think," he answered simply.

She gave him a small smile, and stood, headed towards the small room Draco had shown her yesterday. It had file drawers for the clients' folders, bookshelves full of reference books lining the walls, and a heavy oak table with a few chairs around it in the middle of the room. The room had a permanent muffliato charm cast on it, so that they could hold meetings in it even with clients in the building, and still retain confidentiality.

She looked back over her shoulder at him. "Shall we start for the day?" she asked, before adding teasingly, "I'm not here just to chat, you know."

The two worked together for a good portion of the day, getting the files that Draco had gotten behind on caught up, and reviewing several others. They were nearing the end, when Draco asked if Luna would hand him the Edgecombe file. She didn't even look up, or speak, but she put her hand out to catch the file as it zipped into her waiting grasp. She handed it to him, and just kept working. Draco stared at her in shock, registering the fact that, since getting back in contact with her the previous day, he hadn't seen her take out her wand even once. But here she had just accioed the file wandlessly, and silently. She had used wandless magic, something Voldemort himself had never been able to grasp. You were only supposed to be able to do unfocused and uncontrolled wandless magic, but what Luna had done was a perfect Accio.

"Luna," Draco choked out, "Do you realize what you just did?"

She slowly raised her head to look up at him, realization of her mistake dawning on her. Emotions raced across her features; shame, shock, self-directed anger, and for one fleeting moment, fear. Her throat burned in sudden recollection of a certain potion she had been force fed in those dungeons six years ago. She raised a shaking hand, and suddenly there was a glass of water there. She downed it, refilled it with a silent aguamenti, and sipped slowly from it, watching him, waiting like a cornered animal for his response.

He watched her, too. Her blatant show of wandless magic rendering him speechless for several long moments. When he was able to speak again, he asked her, "Luna, where's your wand?"

She seemed to relax only slightly, noticing that he didn't seem ready to attack her. Her mind was full of memories that bombarded all five of her senses. Her nerves twitched, remembering pain from long ago, while her mind supplied images of those horrifying experiments. She could smell different concoctions, hear different spells, taste the electricity of magic coursing through her. Remembering that hell wiped all vestiges of happiness and peace from her mind as surely as if a Dementor stood over her.

"Don't have one," she ground out. Her usual sunny disposition was gone. The girl in her place looked haunted.

After a long silence, Luna stood and paced. Draco had never seen her like this. Not even when she had been a captive in his father's dungeon. She had always been so full of hope. This woman seemed to have none. When she seemed to have paced at least some of her demons away, she turned to him.

"Do you want to know why?"


	5. Chapter 5

**I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, favorite, follow, and review! You guys have been so supportive, and I love you all so much! This is my first fanfiction, and I never expected to have this kind of response to the first few chapters! Again, thank you, guys.**

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Draco sat silently for several minutes, just watching Luna. She stared back at him, her expression guarded. With such a guarded look on the face of the woman who usually seemed so carefree, she looked like a completely different person. She didn't press him for an answer to the question of whether or not he wanted to know, and he was glad. He wasn't sure he did want to know. On the one hand, she worked for him now. It would probably be best if he knew, so that he knew what to expect later. On the other hand, if whatever had caused this could shake up someone so indefatigably cheerful as Luna, well... He was no Gryffindor.

Finally, he nodded. "I think it would be better if I knew."

She seemed so relieved. "Do you have a pensieve?" she asked softly. "I don't think I can tell it, but I could show you."

She pulled a small, empty vial out of her pocket and unstoppered it. Draco watched in fascination as she pinched next to her temple with her thumb and forefinger, and pulled a silvery substance from her mind. He had seen it done with a wand, of course, but everything she did wandlessly held some new fascination for him. She pooled the memory into her hand for a moment, and poured it into the little vial. With a small shudder, she stoppered it again. Her eyes were much less haunted, and her expression smoothed into something more recognizable as Luna when she looked up at him.

"I felt like I would need this for some reason today, so I stuck it in my pocket," she said about the vial. "It feels better to get that out. Do you have a pensieve?" she asked again.

Draco nodded briefly. "It's in the closet in my flat," he told her. "I can bring it back here? This room is sound proof. My flat is not. If it's as bad as it seems, I don't want to be there, where the neighbors might call the ministry because of our reactions to what we see."

Luna nodded, so Draco apparated to his flat, grabbed one of the very few possessions he had kept from before, and apparated back. The trip had taken less than a minute, and he seemed in a hurry to get things over with when he set the stone basin on the oak meeting table. Luna wordlessly handed him the memory, and he poured it into the basin. Reluctance was evident in his expression, but he lowered his face into the liquid memory and let himself be pulled in.

He barely noticed when Luna landed beside him, because he was so taken aback by finding himself in the Malfoy dungeons. He heard someone coming down the corridor, and instinctively flinched as if to move out of sight.

"I want her broken, Malfoy," he heard a voice saying. It sounded like Amycus Carrow, a Death Eater notorious for his cruelty. "They said the more broken she is, the better the experiment will work. If you can't follow the orders, I will." The sneer in the man's voice was unmistakable.

Draco felt sick to his stomach at the implications of Carrow speaking to his father about breaking a girl. He knew the way they generally "broke" the female prisoners. They had laughed at him and asked if his interests lay in the stronger sex when he had refused. Now he realized with a shudder that they probably meant him to have his turn with Luna. Draco turned slightly to see the cell behind him. The Luna in the memory stood back a bit from the door, her blonde curls matted and dirty. A bruise purpled the side of her face, and marks shaped suspiciously like fingers were yellowed and fading from her neck. Those huge blue eyes of hers watched the hallway with resignation.

Lucius came around the corner then. He opened the cell door and grabbed Luna roughly by the arm, pulling her out towards another room. Old man Ollivander tried to grab her hand and push Lucius away, but Lucius hit him, and the wandmaker fell back. Draco didn't want to watch what was next. Not at all. Luscious got her into the next room and threw her to the floor. His hand flew to the neck of her yellow dress, which he ripped away from her chest.

Mercifully, the memory blurred and skipped. The Luna beside him watched silently as memory Luna held the shreds of her dress' bodice tightly against herself. Tears streaked her face, and new bruises colored her pale skin. Draco turned away quickly, grasping the stone wall and retching violently. Real Luna, even though they were watching this horrifying memory of hers, rubbed small circles on his back and spoke to him in a soothing murmur. It was enough to make him be sick again, knowing that his own father had done this to her, yet she was the one comforting him.

Then, someone came in to take her to another room. Draco recognized it as Snape's potions lab. There was a table that stood at an upright angle, and had straps to hold someone down. Silently, the other person strapped Luna to the table, murmured a quick mending spell on her dress, and left. Snape came then, carrying a potion. Memory Luna eyed the bottle with fear. The concoction was forced down her throat, and she writhed on the table in agony. Her eyes snapped open, and the entire orbs went white. After several long moments, her body went slack. The whiteness faded, but her normally blue eyes were curiously black. She blinked slowly, and when she opened them again, they were their usual color.

The scene shifted again, many times. Always now, it showed the room with the potions, but Draco could tell it was different days by the different bruises, tears in her dress, colors of the potions, etc. Some potions didn't seem to do anything, but others may as well have been the cruciatus curse. Draco reached for Luna's hand, and squeezed her fingers lightly. She gave him a pained smile. Nothing could have prepared Draco for what happened next, though.

Bellatrix came in shouting about an interrogation with Ollivander. "It will work!" she kept saying. She had a wand in hand that Draco didn't recognize, and he realized with a start that it must be Luna's. His aunt Bella danced around Luna with it, taunting her, and caressing her cheek with it. With a cackle, she pulled it back, grasped it in both hands, and snapped it in half. Draco watched, shaking, as the wand was taken, ground into a fine powder, and dumped into a cauldron full of a simmering potion. Snape stood over it, watching it carefully, as it turned a pure, iridescent white. The potion was put in a flask, put to Luna's lips, and poured down her throat.

Luna's body reacted immediately, and violently. Her whole body stiffened, and from her lips tore the most heartbreaking, agonized scream Draco had ever heard. In all of the experiments Draco had witnessed, she had never made a sound. Sometimes silent tears would course down her cheeks, but never had she screamed. Now, she couldn't stop. Every joint in her body had locked up, and every muscle seized. Her throat and intestines burned with an intensity that felt like she wouldn't have a throat or intestines left if the burning ever even stopped. Draco could feel the shadowed memory of how it felt, and even just the memory was hell. Her body started convulsing, and finally she slumped in her bonds, nearly unconscious.

Draco wrapped his arms around Luna when he noticed she was shaking with suppressed sobs. Together, they watched as the memory of her was taken off of the table.

"We will test her to see if it took when she awakes," Snape told the others.

She was taken back to her cell and put in the small alcove that she called a bed. Almost as soon as she was there, she slipped away into a blissful state of oblivion.

A brief blur indicated the passing of time, and memory Luna blinked open her eyes. The bed in the alcove was itchy, and she thought for a moment that she wished it wasn't. And it wasn't. Ollivander heard that she was awake, and rushed to her side. She thought silently, 'we need them to not hear us.' She felt magic course through her, and the blanketing feeling of a muffliato settle over them. She saw a stain of blood on Ollivander's shirt from being hit, and she thought, 'scourgify,' and the stain was gone.

Ollivander sighed, seeing what she was doing. "They imbued your wand into your very being, child."

It made sense. The pain she had felt was her magic, and the properties of her wand, literally fusing to her cells. Ollivander and Luna talked a while longer about what happened, but the scene was shifting. The Death Eaters were trying to get her to cast a spell. Any spell. They were torturing her, trying to get her to react. But she didn't. She didn't respond at all.

The scene changed one last time, and they stood in a cottage of some sorts after Dobby had helped to free them. Mr. Ollivander was handing her a wand. "This wand doesn't have a core in it, Luna," the old man explained. "It's just a pretty, carved piece of wood. But it will keep up appearances," he told her with a wink. "Try it. Focus your power so that it will appear that your magic still comes from the wand."

Luna practiced. It not only honed her skills in the necessary show of channeling her power through the stick in her hand, but she grew more skilled in the wandless, nonverbal casting as well. Draco realized that Luna was preparing for the battle at Hogwarts, although she didn't know it back then. The memory faded, depositing Draco and Luna back on their feet in the meeting room at the office. He looked down at their still joined hands, and pulled her into his arms for a fierce hug. He let her go and ran a hand through his hair.

Luna looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Draco," she said softly. "You didn't need to see all of that."

"No," he said forcefully, causing her to flinch. "Don't apologize. I did need to see it."

She gazed up at him. "Thank you," she whispered. After a moment's pause, she smiled wryly at him and said, "Well, now you know."


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm so sorry everyone! I know I had been quicker to update, but a combination of things got to me. Writer's block was the first one, but after a lengthy discussion with my beta on where exactly this story is going to go, it has been defeated! The second was that I have been camping for the last few days with my hubby, almost 2 year old, and my two younger sisters in law (beta included!). So, as an apology for the wait, two chapters! Please review! I honestly want to know what you think. Criticism is welcome, but no flames, please.**

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It had been a few weeks since the day that Luna had shared her memories with Draco. It had brought the two of them together so quickly that Draco was still trying to figure out what had happened. He went from thinking that this petite little wisp of a woman was completely nutters, to wondering what she thought about things. For once in his life, he cared about someone's opinion for completely unselfish reasons. He wasn't sure what to think about Luna anymore.

Unfortunately, it hadn't been as easy for the clients to accept her and her wisdom. Many of their clients were from the old pureblood families, and to them, Luna would always be a blood traitor. It didn't matter that their accounts had grown significantly ever since she had become a part of things; she was still the strange girl with her head stuck in the clouds. She could dress and talk like the most professional of business women, yet that is still all she would ever be to them. Many of them refused to deal with her at all, saying that if they were to still do business with Draco Malfoy, they would be doing business with him alone. They of course didn't care that she was still involved, because she was making them money. As long as she stayed in the background, that is. Draco became merely the face of the company. His meetings with their clients took up nearly all of his time, while hers was taken up with the logistics of the accounts. It meant that they spent a lot of extra time together, going over Luna's notes so that Draco knew what was going on enough to relay it to the client in layman's terms. It was tiring, spending so much extra time just to appease old prejudices. Draco was sitting at his desk now, going over the notes for the next client.

The next client was one Hippocrates Smethwyck. He was one of the very few who didn't reject Luna. After all, he had known her since she was nine years old. He was the healer-in-charge of the Magical Maladies and Injury ward at St. Mungos, and it had been he who had seen to her mother's care when she had suffered before her death from an experiment gone wrong. He had also been the one who found the cure for Arthur Weasley when he had been attacked by Nagini. He was quite the accomplished Healer, and could be fairly intimidating in his prowess and his bearing. Smethwyck had taken nine year old Luna under his wing, and had never relinquished his acceptance of her. While her mother had been in St. Mungos, he had made sure that Luna was fed, comfortable, and as happy as she could possibly be, given the situation. She had always been quite taken with the gentleman who had filled the place that her father just couldn't find the emotional capacity to fill during that difficult time. Luna had sat on Smethwyck's knee, ridden on his shoulders, and cried in his arms.

Draco looked up from his notes when he heard a sharp rap on his doorframe. Healer Smethwyck stood in the doorway, a frown marring his usually jovial features. The older man stepped inside, approached the desk, and sat rigidly in the chair. The look on his face remained disapproving, as he studied the younger man in front of him.

"Fool," he said somewhat angrily. "Our Miss Lovegood; how is she? Can you answer that honestly?"

Draco was taken aback. "Sir?"

Hippocrates leaned forward, his eyes boring into Draco's. "Luna. Do you think she's happy working like she is? If she wanted to work in the background with the accounts, she would have stayed at the Quibbler working for her father. She isn't here for the accounts, or the money. She's here to work with the people. She loves people, Malfoy. She doesn't love sitting in some back office, working with a quill and parchment. If you were any kind of self-respecting employer, you would know this. And you would be doing a better job of trying to prove her worth to your clients so that she can get out of that damn back office. She's worth it. Stop overlooking her and underestimating her like everyone else has all of her life. Open your eyes, boy."

Once he was done with his speech, he sat back, looking at Draco with an appraising stare instead of the anger that had been there before. "So, what does our little genius have for us today?"

The two men went over the notes Luna had put together for them, and at the end, Draco saw the Healer out. He went back to his office to put together closing notes on what had been discussed. He sat at his desk in silence when the notes were done. Now that he had a chance to think about what the Healer-in-charge had said, it had left him reeling. He had never really stopped to think about how Luna felt with how things had turned out. He had been happy with the extra money coming in, yes. He had been happy with how Luna had turned out to be as an employee. It struck him in the gut to know that he had been so wrong about how things had been going.

For these few weeks, he had seen them as working well together. He had thought about what her ideas would be on certain subjects. It had never crossed his mind that she would be unhappy. Unfortunately, he knew that she was not the type to voice her unhappiness. Her memories of her time in captivity had been enough to prove that. It was going to have to be up to him to make the changes.

Draco began deliberating on what he could do to change the way the office was being run. For one, he could give Luna the accounts of those that were more accepting of her work there, and maybe of a few that were more on the pleasant side of neutral. He could take over a few of the least accepting clients, and they could work together on those in between. It would give those who were unsure a chance to see that Luna could handle herself, and bring great amounts of profit to those she was working with. Maybe, eventually, they would reach the point where they had an equal partnership in everything.

It was a small step, but Draco felt that if they could accomplish this feat, it would be a step in the right direction for the wizarding world. It would be a step towards unification of the classes, which was something unheard of until now. If the muggles could move out of their age of social status being everything, then by Merlin, they could too.

Draco was pleased with the plan he had drawn up of which accounts should be handled by each of them, and he bade Luna a quick goodbye as they locked up. His apparition back to his flat landed him directly in his recliner, a trick that he had been practicing lately just for his own amusement. The last of his evening was spent in his recliner with a bottle of firewhiskey, thinking over what Healer Smethwycke had told him about Luna.


	7. Chapter 7

It had been two days since Healer Smethwyck's visit, and Draco hadn't had a chance to talk to Luna about the changes he wanted to put into place. He planned to talk to her more about it on Saturday, if she would meet him for lunch, but he hadn't asked that yet, either. His mind had been preoccupied, making sure that everything was going to work perfectly. Several floo calls had been made from the soundproofed meeting room. Each client he had spoken with had been eager to try his plan of Luna working with them except for one, and it had taken very little convincing to get them to agree as well. He was all set to ask her about lunch the next day when she came into his office with her own question.

"Draco," she asked lightly. "We've been really productive these last few days, and I think we both need time away, even for just a little bit. Can we go for a walk?"

He gave her a bright smile. This may be what he needed to broach the subject, since he knew she wouldn't be the one to bring up her discomfiture at their work arrangement. "Sure," he agreed.

They walked down to the park that was not too far from the office. It had been erected as a memorial to those who died in the war. A large statue of the Golden Trio stood in the center, but there were a few smaller statues, as well. One of Dumbledore stood almost as a silent, twinkle-eye guardian over a small playground. Another depicted Neville with the sword of Gryffindor in hand, standing over a decapitated Nagini. A wall stood, covered in the names of those who had lost their lives. Each name, when touched, brought up a holographic image of the one it belonged to. For some reason, the one for Fred Weasley stayed stubbornly up, no matter what they tried to do to make it behave like the others. And, of course, his picture was making faces at the passersby.

The park had an extensive garden close to the statue of Neville that was full of some of the most wondrous plants. Neville hated that there was a statue of him in the park. As a joke, he had planted the first plants in the garden around it, and then used his authority as the Herbology Professor at Hogwarts to obtain permission to bring some students down to Hogsmeade on some extra weekends to plant more and care for the whole thing. A surprising number had elected to take part in the Herbology club, and they had done a marvelous job. The garden was where Draco and Luna were walking now. They walked in silence for a little while, reflecting on the things that the park was meant to remind them of. It was an overcast day, and it seemed like it could storm later.

Luna spoke after a while. "Draco?" she asked timidly. "I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

Maybe she was going to prove him wrong about being the one to speak up. "I know," he said.

She stopped, looking at him with curiosity. "It's about me working for you."

"Yes," he said. "I know."

She looked confused now. "You know? You know why I'm here?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Yes, for the people."

"For… for the people?" she stammered. "No, Draco, I'm… well, I'm here because I need your help. You're the only one left from that time. I was hoping that you knew something. Things... things have been happening to me. I don't know what's going on." Her voice was desperate.

He stared at her. "You took a job with me for this? You could have just asked."

She laughed. "No, Draco. I needed to be your friend first, or you wouldn't have listened to me."

He nodded slowly. "Go on, Luna. What do you need?"

She gave him a small smile of thanks before continuing. "Well, I don't suppose you were working with Professor Snape on any of his projects?" Draco shook his head and gestured for her to go on. "Um, did you ever overhear any of them talking about what they were trying to do?"

Again, he shook his head.

Luna was discouraged now. She hadn't expected much, but she had expected more than nothing. She thought quickly, trying to word another question that may gain her some important knowledge. She couldn't come up with much that hadn't been covered in those two questions. It was improper, but…

"Can I come with you to the Manor sometime? I was hoping to look through the room Snape used. To see if there's anything I can find. I just need to know what's going on. If I could find some notes, anything, it might help."

Draco looked at her with regret in his eyes. "I can't, Luna."

Her face fell. "I see."

"No, you don't understand. I can't take you to the Manor because it isn't mine anymore. The Manor, the other properties, the main Malfoy vault, it all went to the ministry. Part of the agreement was that I never go back there."

Luna studied him. "You gave up everything, didn't you? I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

He almost laughed. "But what about you, Luna? What about what you've given up? What about the fact that now that you know I can't get you into the Manor, it's going to make it very hard for you to figure out what's going on? What about the fact that working for me has proven to be for nothing? And I haven't even been considerate enough to work towards the clients accepting you as what you are to this business? Maybe it would be better if you find a job with an employer who won't take advantage of you. I'll find someone I can't get attached to and go on with life like it was before."

Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. "Draco, don't. Please."

"No, Luna. You need to understand."

She got up in his face and said angrily, "No! You need to understand, Mr. Malfoy. You are my friend. Even if I came out of this with nothing else, you are my friend. I will find a way to find out what's going on. As for the clients, you can't change what they don't wish you to change. Let things be, and they will sort themselves out. But don't you dare turn your back on me now, when I've opened up to you things that no one else knows. You're the only true friend I have ever had, and I can see you saying goodbye in your eyes."

Draco scoffed. "Only true friend? Luna, you don't even know me. How do you know that I haven't just been using you?"

"Using me for what?" she shot back. "I have nothing you could want. I have nothing anyone could want. I'm just poor, crazy little Loony Lovegood. If you mean for my work here, there are plenty of other capable people Harper could have chosen. You would have had less trouble with the clients if you hadn't hired a blood traitor. Don't you try to push me away. I know you better than that, at least. You don't have to tell me your past for me to know who you are now. The person you are now wants a friend. I'm here. I'm offering friendship. I need it just as much as you do, but the thing is, I need to give friendship just as much as I need to receive it. I'm not like the "friends" you had in Hogwarts, Draco. I don't want your friendship for your status or your money. You have none. I just want your friendship because of who you are."

Her chest rose and fell rapidly with each heavy breath. She had her hands clenched into fists at her sides, and she stood blocking the pathway back to the main part of the park. The two stared each other down for many long moments before Draco sighed heavily, and sat in the grass. Luna relaxed slightly, the anger in her eyes making them stormy and dark. Draco looked closer. Her eyes were usually blue. But now, they were a dark, cloudy grey, speckled with darker flecks that gave a feeling of thunder.

A clap of thunder sounded as she plopped down in the grass next to him.

"I'm not leaving, you know," she said in her usual airy voice.

He gave her a small smile. "I know."


	8. Chapter 8

The park in Hogsmeade became a favorite place of Luna and Draco's. They spent at least one afternoon a week there, unwinding from their long days at work. It was nice to be able to take that time to get to know each other better, and the two of them were becoming closer as friends. Over the three months since Luna started working with Draco, they had also started spending time together outside of work, and not just at the park.

Blaise came along on occasion, usually with the night's squeeze on his arm. The Italian had a tendency to give them a hard time about their "blossoming relationship," but really, they were just comfortable with each other. They knew the ins and outs of each other's personalities, and it meant that they didn't expect anything from each other. They didn't expect more than friendship, that was for sure. Blaise wasn't hearing anything of it, though. He kept trying to throw them together into a relationship.

The articles in the Daily Prophet were printed relentlessly, and they mirrored Blaise's goals. It seemed like the wizarding world was keen to know more about the two and whatever it was that they had between them. Angry letters came to both of them. Most of the ones Luna received were from Ron. Luna and Draco just laughed them off, but Draco could tell that the letters from her "friends" were disheartening for her.

On one of their evenings out, the two of them had met Blaise and a tall, leggy brunette for a Quidditch match. It was the Harpies vs. Puddlemere, and it was the first time that the two teams had played each other since the riot that had broken out in 1999. It was likely to be an interesting match. This time around, the security at the gates not only confiscated every wand of every person that came through, but they used a spell based off of the concept of Muggle metal detectors to check that the wands handed over weren't dummy wands, and that those going into the stadium didn't have a wand stashed away somewhere.

Luna was nervous. She knew that she would inevitably run into Ginny Potter, and it wasn't necessarily something she was looking forward to. She wanted to just leave after the match, but Blaise had secured them tickets to an after party with the Harpies. He was convinced that they were the better team this year, and he wanted time with the ladies after a glorious win, as he put it. His date was not amused.

Luna spent a lot of her time watching the people instead of the match. The two teams, one in their royal blue, and one in their forest green, didn't really interest her. She loved the sights and sounds of an excited crowd. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, anticipating what had been the most talked about game of the year. Luna felt that everyone was so busy looking for someone else to do something exciting, that no one was going to actually do anything. She loved the excitement on everyone's faces. People just seemed so much more alive when they were taking part in something that they loved. The feeling was intensified when you put so many people in the same place who enjoyed the same thing.

Somewhere during the match, Luna's eyes fell on Draco. His hair was messier than usual, and his absent minded fixing it every once in a while did nothing because of the wind. His eyes watched the match with just as much happiness and excitement as everyone else, but the effect was even more striking to Luna because he seemed so uninhibited. He was relaxed, and happy. It was a rare, beautiful sight, and Luna realized for the first time that her friend was incredibly handsome.

Draco felt her eyes on him and turned to her. "Something wrong?"

She smiled at him and shook her head, turning back to watch people again. The match wasn't anything special, really. The snitch made a very early appearance, and Blaise was proven right when the Harpies' seeker caught it before the Puddlemere seeker even knew that it had shown itself. Blaise excitedly made his way down to the entrance to the locker room to wait for the girls to come out to meet them and take them to the party, along with a dozen or so other witches and wizards. His date pled a headache, and apparated away, apparently not wanting to stick around to watch the debacle that he was sure to make of himself.

Draco and Luna hung back a little ways from the crowd. "Are you alright?" Draco asked.

She shrugged. "I guess so. I haven't seen Ginny in a while, and I'm not sure how she will react. I suppose she will jump to the conclusion that we are "together," since I'm here with you. She's very opinionated, you know. I don't expect her to react quietly."

Draco laughed. "Well, we could always give a good show, then."

Luna smacked his arm and chided softly, "Behave. She is my friend. Or at least she always was. I don't want to lie to her. It would be mean to get her upset like that for no reason."

The two of them fell silent, and watched as the Harpies filed out of their locker room, having changed out of their dark green quidditch robes in favor of jeans and dark green t-shirts with their teams emblem of a golden talon on the front. They were all talking animatedly about their fast win. One of the last to emerge was Ginny Potter, nee Weasley. She scanned the fifteen assembled there for the after party, and narrowed her eyes when she saw Luna and Draco. Immediately, she started towards them, looking agitated.

"Luna," she greeted her old friend, then turned to Draco with disgust evident in her features. "Malfoy."

Draco caught up her hand and kissed her knuckles, but she quickly snatched her hand back from him. "Mrs. Potter," he greeted back with amusement.

Luna smiled nervously at her old friend. "Hello, Ginny."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "So it's true?" Luna smiled.

"Many things are true, Ginny. It all depends on which you are asking about."

The red-head snorted and jerked her head in Draco's direction. "The things the Prophet's been printing. Are you really with that git?"

"That git is right here, and has ears, you know," Malfoy joked.

Ginny brushed him off. "Luna?"

"I'm not "with him" romantically, Ginny. I work with him. You know how reliable the Prophet is. You should really read daddy's paper, it's much more reliable."

Her friend wasn't convinced. "Then why are you here? Together?"

Luna sighed. "We're friends," she said patiently. "Friends do things together."

"Friends? With a Slytherin? And an ex-Death Eater, to boot. His kind don't make friends, Luna. They use people. They hurt people."

"Still right here," Draco interjected.

Ginny made a rude gesture at him, and turned back to Luna. "You really need to pull your head out of the clouds this time, Luna. Before you get hurt." She reached into the pocket of her robes. "I've decided I don't feel like going to the after party tonight. I'm going home. But Harry wanted me to give this to you." She handed Luna an envelope, and marched back into the locker rooms.

Luna looked down at the envelope in her hands with tears in her eyes. She looked so young and vulnerable. "I've already been hurt, but not by Draco," she whispered after her friend.

Draco put an arm around her shoulders. "Come on, Luna. Lets go find something else to do. This party seems lame."

The two decided to go to a small café. Luna was quiet through most of the meal, and kept turning the envelope over and over in her hands. "Do you suppose I should just read it?" she asked Draco.

He joked with her, "That is what it's for."

She cracked a small smile. "Alright." With a sigh, she broke the seal on the envelope and took out the small parchment inside. It wasn't a letter, like she had expected, but an invitation to the celebration that the Potters were having in a few weeks on the anniversary of the end of the war. May 2 nd was just around the corner, and Luna had always been invited to the party that Harry and Ginny held. Luna's eyes scanned the invitation, and tears pricked them when she saw that the invitation was for "Miss Luna Lovegood plus one guest." She glanced up at Draco, and wordlessly handed him the parchment. He read it, and looked at her with a grin.

"May 2 nd , huh? So who are you taking as your plus one?"

She laughed then, but her laugh was cut short as her body went rigid. Her eyes opened wide, and Draco watched as the irises of her eyes turned a white that was strangely reminiscent of the potion that had infused her wand into her body. She spoke, and her voice came out so much less airy and innocent than it usually sounded.

"On this, the seventh year from the death of the dark one, a birthday will also mark a great change in power," she intoned. "A choice will be made that will either save or annihilate the wizarding world. If this choice is not made correctly, the change will cause great heartache. The pure do not always make pure choices."

Her posture relaxed, and she shuddered slightly. Her gaze found Draco's, and her once again blue eyes looked worried. She didn't say a word about the prophecy that she had just uttered, and Draco wondered if she knew that she had even spoken.

By the look in her eyes and the tremor in her hand, he was sure that she did.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello lovely readers! I want to give a shout out to my friends over at "I suspect the Nargles are behind it - Luna Lovegood" on facebook. They run a spectacular page, and everyone needs to go like it. Pretty please? You won't be disappointed. They do a great job of having new things up all the time so that you're never bored. So anyway, Chapter 9!**

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Luna let herself in through the wards around her small house that she was renting. It was the perfect place for her, really. There was enough of a backyard for her to grow a few vegetables and herbs, and enough space in the front for a few flowers. The paint was a cheerful, inviting yellow, and the steps leading up to the door were covered by a small overhanging porch. Luna stepped inside into her living room, and let out a big sigh.

She wandered around the little house aimlessly for a while, but found her way back to the front room, and sat down on her cozy brown sofa. She had been unhappy about how things had gone with Ginny, and then she and Draco had gone to that little cafe. When she read the invitation from Harry, she had been so grateful for the effort that he had made to be accepting. She knew what he had meant by the "plus one" on the invitation. He hadn't come right out and invited Draco personally, which meant that he wasn't going so far as to accept Draco himself, but he was letting her know that he still accepted her no matter who she chose to associate with.

A squeak brought Luna's attention to the brilliantly blue hued puffskein that was rolling around at her feet. She had been a gift from Ginny one year, apparently Fred and George had gotten a whole shipment of them to try to breed new traits into their pygmy puffs. This one, for whatever reason, wouldn't or couldn't breed. Luna loved her puffskein, and the puffskein in turn loved her. Luna had named her Lilla, and Lilla knew when Luna needed cheering up, like now.

Luna absently stroked Lilla's fur and let her mind wander. Memories of other prophecies she had given rose to the surface and crashed over her like waves. Each one was more powerful than the last; some seemed humorous in retrospect, but others were painful. One in particular stood out to her. She could no longer remember the exact wording, because she had been so young when she had given it. All she knew was that it hurt. She picked Lilla up, putting her on the top of her head like a fluffy, furry hat, and walked into her bedroom. She opened one of the smaller drawers in the top of her dresser, and pulled out a battered leather journal.

This journal was fifteen years old, and in it she had written every prophecy she had ever given. Her early prophecies were small; things like "Early in the fifth month, papa will receive an owl from an old friend." She had been seven when she gave that first one. She flipped through these simpler prophecies, dreading the one whose memory was so persistently plaguing her. Finally, she could put it off no longer, and she turned the page.

3 October 1989

In three days time, genius shall reach its limits.

A husband will be left without his direction.

A daughter will lose her mother to ambition.

For two, their world will fall apart.

Suddenly, Luna found herself in a memory. It felt quite like viewing a memory through a pensieve, but she was her nine year old self again. She sat on a dirty wooden floor playing with a tattered, much-loved doll when her vision went funny, and she could hear herself speak those dreadful words that she just knew were about her own family. Little Luna dropped the doll where she had been sitting, and ran outside to the clearing her mother liked to work in.

"Momma!" she cried. "Momma! Please stop!" Tears streaked down her grubby, round little cheeks.

Her mother turned to her in surprise. "Luna, you know you aren't supposed to be out here when I'm working. What's going on, love?" She scooped up her daughter in her arms, holding her close while she sobbed. "Shhh, baby, I'm here for you. I will always be here for you."

Those words made Luna sob harder. "No, you won't, Momma. That's why you have to stop!"

Esperanza Lovegood pulled back, holding Luna's shoulders, and studying her from arm's length. The two looked so similar, it was uncanny. Esperanza wasn't as airy and innocent as her daughter. She was ambitious, cunning, daring, and thrill-seeking. She was a Slytherin. a Pureblood. She had married Luna's father on a whim, and had been ridiculed by her family for her choice in husband, even though he was a pureblood as well. He was odd even then, when they were young. Luna was wildly intelligent like her mother, and a little on the odd side like her father. At times like these, Esperanza wasn't sure what to think.

"Luna, darling, you're going to have to explain," she told her daughter calmly.

"I did it again, Momma. I told a prophecy." Luna dissolved into tears once more. "Please don't do magic? Not for a while? No spells, no potions. And stay home? Just me, and you, and papa, when he gets home. Not even any owls. Please, Momma? Please?"

Little Luna looked up into her mother's eyes with hope in her own. Esperanza didn't know what Luna had foretold, but she couldn't tell her daughter no. She grasped that little hand in her own and walked with her back to the house. For two days, Esperanza was able to follow Luna's requests. On the third day, she snuck out into her clearing in the wee hours of the morning while there was still a mist over everything. She couldn't take it anymore. She just HAD to do something, or the boredom would drive her past the brink of insanity. So, long before Luna usually woke up for the day, she left the confines of their rook-shaped home.

Luna woke up knowing something was amiss. She called out for her mother, knowing she wouldn't get an answer. Throwing off the covers, the little girl ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She had to stop and slow down as she got close, because the stitch in her side was making it hard to breathe. That was when she saw it. The spell. Esperanza was casting something huge. Luna didn't know what it was, but the purple light that surrounded her mother in streaks and sparks was growing exponentially. Esperanza had a look of elated concentration on her elegant features. Then it happened. The build up got to be too much. It got out of control. Sparks of red fizzled throughout the orb of power, until the whole thing exploded in a magnificent blast made up of every color imaginable. As soon as the magic had fizzled out enough to allow Luna to get close, she ran to her mother's stricken form. Esperanza looked up at her little girl, anguish marring her beautiful face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Luna snapped out of the memory with a gasp. Her face pinched into a look of anguish so much like her mother's, and then her whole body gave in to huge, wracking sobs, punctuated by keening wails. She forced herself to remember the rest of it, how she had run home to the fireplace, thrown in some floo powder, and yelled for St. Mungos. It had been Healer Smethwyck who had answered her call and stepped through the green flames to help Luna and Esperanza into the Dai Llewellyn ward. Her father had been in Sweden on one of his hunts for the Crumple Horned Snorcack, and so it had been Healer Smethwyck who had filled in the place Xeno should have taken.

The petite blonde witch sobbed harder as she remembered sitting by her mother's side as she drew her last breath and became still, her painful suffering from the magic rebounding finally at an end after four days. Luna had run from that place. Run for what seemed like hours, barely taking notice of how her bare feet bled from the brutal stones and twigs she ran over. She had gotten thoroughly lost, until Dumbledore found her. He had heard about her mother, and knew that her father wasn't there, so he took her back to Hogwarts with him. Luna was far too young to take part in anything, but Hagrid had taken her under his wing, taking her on walks around the grounds. He had introduced her to the thestrals.

Luna knew that life was very different now from back then. She was no longer the dirty, raggedy little girl, but a strong, powerful woman. She could move on from the memory and remember it for what it was; part of who she was today, but not something that governed her future. She turned to a new page in her journal, and accioed a quill. This new prophecy that she had spoken at dinner DID have the power to govern her future, and that prospect frightened her. She carefully penned it in, and took Lilla down from her perch, hugging her to herself; seeking the comfort of another warm, living, breathing being.


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry guys, no new chapter, yet. I had an oops pointed out to me in this chapter, so I fixed it. Chapter 12 will be up soon!**

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Draco was pacing a track in the carpet of the living room in his flat. The words of Luna's prophecy repeated themselves over and over again. He wasn't going to pretend that he knew what it meant, but he was going to try to puzzle it out. A birthday on the seventh anniversary of the battle. That much was clear. But whose birthday was on May 2nd? And somehow a difficult choice was going to have to be made. Draco sighed in exasperation. The prophecy was fairly straightforward, but he needed more information to grasp its actual meaning. The last line echoed throughout his thoughts. The pure do not always make pure choices. It bothered him. Something about the entire prophecy screamed "Luna!"

He didn't want it to be about her. He didn't want his friend to go through a difficult decision. He didn't want her to have the weight of the wizarding world on her shoulders. It was entirely too heavy of a burden to bear. But it wasn't necessarily about her, right? It could be about anyone. He didn't even know when her birthday was. It could have been bloody Christmas Day for all he knew. He decided that would be the first thing he would ask her about on Monday.

A clatter sounded in his kitchen, snapping him out his brooding. He drew his wand and approached, ready to hex whoever was there. Blaise came around the corner, jumping when he saw Draco's wand pointed at his chest.

"Bloody hell, mate. Put that thing down." He flopped into Draco's recliner unceremoniously, flinging one leg over the arm. "I don't know why you always do that. Who do you think would be coming through your wards?"

Draco gave a noncommittal grunt. "If I had some warning that you were coming over, I might not react like that."

Blaise chuckled, but sobered quickly. "Oi, what's eating you? Luna troubles?"

The blonde shook his head. "Not like you think."

Blaise sat up and put his feet properly on the floor, propping his elbows on his knees, the look on his face obviously urging his friend to continue. Draco was silent for a little while, still pacing. His appearance was disheveled, which was unusual. The button-down shirt he was wearing was untucked and the top couple of buttons undone, and the bottom was creased from having been tucked in all day. There was something that smelled like firewhiskey all down the front of his shirt, and his hair hung in his eyes. Those silvery eyes were troubled; that trouble bordering on dangerous.

"She's a beautiful girl, mate," Blaise said quietly. "I can't blame you for being so smitten that you're going crazy."

Draco sat down on his sofa in a huff. "It really isn't like that, Blaise. I like her, yeah, as a friend. She's just so bloody confusing! I know her better than I know anyone else, it seems, yet every day she springs something on me that completely rearranges everything I thought I knew."

Blaise chuckled. "As a friend my arse," he muttered. Draco scowled at him, but didn't say anything. "Look, Draco, how about you just tell me what you know?"

"She is beautiful," Draco conceded. "And bloody brilliant. You really don't know brilliant until you sit with her going over accounts for a day. She's sweet. I've never met anyone as selfless as she is. She was raised by her nutjob of a father, so that explains why she can be a little abnormal at times." He fell silent for a few moments. "Did you know that she was one of the prisoners kept in my own damn house during the war? They tortured her. And worse."

Draco reached for the glass of firewhiskey that he had sitting on the coffee table. Blaise left him to his thoughts for a little while before asking, "Why do you keep denying that you like her? You two need each other."

He was met with a thoughtful frown. "Do I? Like her, I mean? Or do I just feel obligated to help her because she's my friend, and she is still dealing with the aftereffects of time spent in MY house?"

Blaise studied Draco. "Did you participate?"

"NO!" Draco practically exploded at him. "How could you even ask that?" He threw back the remaining contents of his glass and reached for the bottle, but Blaise stopped him.

"You don't need that, mate. You need to be clear-headed to think about this. Do you love her?"

The blonde man scoffed. "Love, Blaise? Really? No. I'm not capable."

Blaise ignored the last part. "Do you fancy her?"

Empty silence reigned for several long minutes. "I honestly don't know," was the eventual response. "Can we talk about something else?"

His Italian friend settled back in the chair, staring into the empty fireplace. The two enjoyed the companionable quiet, and Blaise poured himself some of the dark, amber liquid that he had kept from Draco. Draco summoned another glass, and this time Blaise didn't stop him from pouring himself some more. They drank together without talking, just thinking.

After a while, Blaise broke the silence. "I'm seeing Harper."

Draco nearly choked on his firewhiskey. "Harper? Harper Camden?

Blaise's response was calm. "Do you know any other Harpers?"

"Well, no. But, how? Thought she hated you for being a party boy and a player and all that?"

"Yeah, well, I promised not to see other girls, and that I would clean up my act a little bit. I'm getting a job, too. I start at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes on Monday."

Draco laughed. It was a full, real, heartfelt laugh. "What a job! I have to say, mate, it couldn't be more perfect for you."

The two talked for many long hours. Blaise had gotten the job because he had been in the pub talking about the need for a job, but the dislike of confining things like desks, and rules. George had overheard the former Slytherin, and asked if he liked pranks and jokes, and the two had hit it off splendidly. Harper had suggested the search for employment and was almost upset about his choice, but she couldn't fault him for trying and finding something he enjoyed.

At first, Blaise had been trying to push Draco and Luna together because he suspected that Draco may have had feelings for Harper, and he didn't want Draco to be upset if anything came of his advances. Draco laughed at that. He hadn't felt more than friendship for his former assistant, and he was glad to see that she had found someone. He was even more glad that Blaise was finally making the effort to settle down.

Blaise fell asleep after a while, and Draco pulled himself off the sofa into his own room. The conversation from earlier was bothering him. He was slowly coming to the realization that Blaise was right. His relationship with Luna was past the point of mere friendship. He wanted to protect her, and make her happy. He wanted to be there for her when things went wrong, and celebrate with her when things went right. He just didn't know how far he was willing to take it yet.

He paced the floor in his bedroom now, unable to fall asleep. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that even if he figured out that he did like Luna, he would never be able to do anything about it. He was all wrong for her. She was beautiful; even more so on the inside than her very real beauty on the outside. He was anything but. He had been on the other side in the war, and had probably even attacked her at some point during the battle. He couldn't remember if he had or not, and the thought that he could have drove him crazy. Not to mention the fact that, more likely than not, she had never and would never think of him that way. No, he would never have anything more than friendship with Luna. No matter how much he might like her.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello lovelies! This is my longest chapter yet! It holds a bit of a turning point, so I hope you like it!**

**Also, it was brought to my attention by the wonderful Bookmite that there is a song that fits the memory of Luna and the torture/experiments in the Malfoy dungeons VERY well. Grey Street, by the Dave Matthews Band. PLEASE go to youtube and give it a listen. It would be Draco's perspective on what he saw in the memory. **

**Read and review, please! I love, LoVe, LOVE you guys!**

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Since Friday night, Luna had done her best to put the prophecy out of her mind. She had given a blessed few prophecies as monumental as that one, and right now, she didn't want to dwell on what those words meant. That left her thinking about the party coming up in just under two weeks. Usually, given the circumstances, she would be extremely nervous. She was getting ready to see her friends for the first time since starting her job with Draco; except for the one brief run-in with Ginny. She was going to see Ron, who she didn't expect to settle down even knowing that they weren't "together." She knew that her friends meant well, and that they only wanted to protect her, but Luna was very disappointed that they didn't trust her judge of character.

She realized with a start that she wasn't nervous at all, but excited. She puzzled over the feeling of excitement, turning it over and over in her mind, searching it from every angle. It didn't really make sense for her to be excited about it. After all, it was likely to be a disaster. Luna tried to find the source of her inexplicable happy anticipation, but all she could picture was Draco with his tousled hair at the quidditch match.

A slow smile spread across her face, brightening more and more as she thought about her friend. That moment at the match had been when she had noticed how handsome he was. Her eyes grew wide. Was she excited about the dinner because she would be going with Draco? She had some thinking to do. Did she like him? She wasn't sure. She did find him very handsome, and she enjoyed spending time with him. But did she actually, really like Draco Malfoy? Luna had never liked anyone romantically before. She had never really had the opportunity. For her to realize now that there was a possibility that she thought of Draco that way had her absolutely floored.

Luna checked her appearance in the mirror one last time, and apparated to Hogsmeade. She got to the apparition point, and skipped the rest of the way there. It was a beautiful sunny day with just a few small, fluffy white clouds dancing through the sky. On the way, Luna decided to officially ask Draco to come with her to the dinner at the Potters'. She opened the door to the office and smiled at the little bell that Draco had finally let her put over the door.

"To keep the wrackspurts away," she had explained. "when you hear a noise as happy as that little bell tinkling, it helps to dislodge them so they can't make your brain fuzzy and unhappy."

As soon as she stepped inside, she knew something was off. Usually a boisterous greeting of "Hello, Luna!" greeted her from the other room, or at least a tired, sometimes headache-ridden Draco would shuffle out to greet her in a little more subdued manner. Today she made her way nervously to his door and knocked before pushing it the rest of the way open. Draco sat at his desk, perusing a file, looking as neat and pulled together as he usually did. He glanced up at her as she came in.

"Oh, hey Luna," he said off-handedly. "Did you need anything?"

She shook her head, and wandered into her own office. Draco watched her go with sadness in his eyes. "Don't give in," he thought to himself. "This is better. If you stay standoffish and impersonal, you won't get too close, and you can't hurt her." A little part of him argued that they were already too close of friends for it NOT to hurt her, but he squashed it down. For the rest of the morning they continued like that, until Luna had had enough of the silence. She marched herself into Draco's office after his last client of the morning had left, and sat herself in the chair opposite him.

"Draco, what's wrong?" She asked with concern. "Have I done something to upset you? Is it the prophecy?" Her blue eyes were wide, and she fidgeted with her hands in her lap.

He avoided her eyes. "You've done nothing wrong, Luna."

She sat quietly, thinking. "Are you lying?"

A humorless chuckle passed his lips. "No. You have done nothing wrong."

"Then why are you avoiding me?" She asked softly. "I thought we were friends? You can talk to me, you know."

He shook his head. "Not about this. Just trust me, ok? I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't the best thing to do."

She thought carefully for a few minutes, not quite believing him that what he was doing was the best, but trusting him nonetheless. Finally, she sighed, and stood to go. Draco turned back to the papers in front of him. Luna hesitated at the door.

"Draco?"

His grey eyes met her blue ones.

"Will you go with me to the Potters' on the second?"

He tried to say no. It would have been the right thing to do. His mind fought with his heart for a while, and before he could get his mouth to work and answer her either way, she had taken his silence as a rejection and disappeared into her own office, shutting the door with a quiet little click of finality.

Luna sat in her office for a good portion of the afternoon, not really accomplishing anything. All she could think about was her best friend in the next room, and the fact that it felt like he didn't want to be her friend anymore. Just when she had begun to think of him as someone she might possibly like, he was pushing her away. Something just didn't compute. There was no way that he knew what she thought of him, so it couldn't be that he was repulsed by her possible-but-not-for-sure affection. Maybe she had taken too long to start to come to the conclusion that she had, and he felt rejected? She shook her head in frustration.

If he was feeling rejected, what should she do about it? She searched within herself for boldness, and found an untapped reserve of... something. She didn't know what. It was bold, powerful, and raw. It felt like pure magic. The animalistic nature of that force inside her was terrifying, but it felt like such a part of her that it couldn't be bad to use it, right? If she channeled it, she could, possibly, find the courage she needed to tell Draco that she thought she might like him. She reached into herself, grasped a tendril of that raw power, and felt it surge through her like electricity powering a machine. She felt magnificently strong, and her mind saw sharp absolutes, like something primal that had such basic, simple needs. The need running through her mind had no name, but it ran deep and fierce. Grasping that drive and the power she felt, Luna stood from her desk and walked into the front room where Draco was looking for something.

Draco looked up when he heard Luna approach. He felt his eyes pulled to hers, and saw that her eyes were a deep, sparkling, rich purple. She had a look of absolute determination on her face, and she was walking in a fluid, predatory, almost seductive manner towards him. He swallowed with difficulty, and watched her slow sashay. This wasn't Luna. He couldn't fathom that the girl he knew would walk like that, or look at him like that. In a matter of seconds since she entered the room, she had reached him.

With a toss of her head, Luna flicked her blonde curls over her shoulder, and reached up with one dainty hand to grab his collar roughly. The other hand caressed his cheek. He stared at her in shock. This was definitely not his Luna. And those eyes... those magnificent purple eyes that were so intoxicating, yet so foreign and wrong. She looked up at him with a small smirk.

"Come with me to the Potters'." It wasn't a question.

She yanked down on his collar that she still held, and he crashed downward towards her. That little hand that held such strength pushed against him at just the right moment so that they didn't both tumble to the floor, but his lips collided with hers. She kissed him hungrily, drinking him in. Draco was powerless against her. She was breathtaking, and he hadn't realized just how much he had wanted to kiss her until it was happening. He realized with a pang that this wasn't what he had expected kissing Luna to be like. He had expected her kisses to be soft, sweet, and innocent. That thought was enough to give him the power to pull away.

He realized that he had one hand at the small of her back, and the other cupping the back of her neck. He leaned his forehead against hers and looked into her eyes, watching the purple fade back to sky blue. Comprehension dawned on her delicate features, and she pulled away, scrambling to keep herself upright when she was so weak-kneed. Her blood pounded in her ears. Why was she so uncomfortably hot?

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry, Draco!" she exclaimed. Her knees gave out, and she sank to the floor, sobbing weakly.

Draco knelt down next to her, confused. "Luna, what was that?"

"My first kiss," she answered meekly.

He gave a barking laugh of surprise. "First kiss? Luna, why? Where did that come from? That wasn't you."

Inside, his emotions were in a turmoil. Luna had kissed him. She had acted completely like someone else, and practically attacked him. He had liked it, yes. He was a man, after all, and he did like her, but this complicated matters. He was supposed to be backing away from her, not kissing her. He wasn't sure if he would be able to stick to the plan after this, but he HAD to. Did she like him? She had to, right? Or she wouldn't have kissed him.

He looked down at her, and she looked up at him. Her expression practically mirrored his. Confusion, hope, sadness, embarrassment, and so much more. She looked away, unable to meet his gaze for long.

"Draco, I..." She collapsed on the floor, those beautiful blue eyes rolling back into her head. Her body convulsed violently, and Draco reached to steady her head. She was burning hot, and he hissed in surprise. He scooped her up in his arms, ran to the fireplace in the meeting room, flooing directly to the Dai Llewellyn ward at St. Mungos. Healer Smethwyck came running when a junior healer alerted him to their presence, and they took her from his arms, rushing to figure out what was wrong.


	12. Chapter 12

**I am SO SORRY for the long wait, guys! What with the 4th of July, and then discovering Divergent and Insurgent, I was distracted. I feel so bad! So, this is my longest chapter yet. I hope it makes up for the wait!**

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Frustrating. That was the only word that Draco could come up with to describe waiting to find out what was going on with Luna. It seemed like just getting her in a bed and strapped down, so that the seizure she was still experiencing wouldn't hurt her worse than it already was, had to take forever. Draco just wanted to stand there and scream at them all to hurry up. Make the seizure stop. Get her body heat under control. Wake her up. Tell him what was wrong with her. None of the nurses would look at him, since he had refused to let them shoo him out of the room they had put her in. Healer Smethwyck stood at Luna's side, checking things with his wand.

After several minutes of inconclusive tests, Smethwyck put up a few different monitoring spells, and stayed close to monitor her outwardly, as well. Luna's body convulsed for what seemed like forever, and then finally went completely slack. Draco ran to her, his heart pounding in his ears. Smethwyck held up a hand to stop him, and checked the spells.

"She's alive," he said gruffly. "Her body temperature is far too high, and I don't know what kind of damage the seizures have done. Mr. Malfoy, if she wakes up, she may not be the same."

Draco was stunned into silence. "You said if," he grated out.

Smethwyck looked at Draco with an odd mixture of anguish and pity. "Would you rather have me lie to you? The spells are set to alert me if anything changes, and I will check on her periodically. If you want to stay here, we will have to check you periodically to make sure that whatever is wrong with her has not spread. Let a nurse know when you decide." The healer in charge walked towards the door and paused when he heard Draco's voice.

"It won't spread," the blonde told him. He repeated himself, saying those words more surely this time.

The older man gestured for Draco to follow him, and they went into a small, cluttered office.

Here, in this place where the healer didn't have to put up a front around his patients, Draco thought Hippocrates Smethwyck looked much older. He slumped a little in his chair, and the hand that he ran through his graying hair was shaking. His eyes were full of apprehension at what the blonde wizard in front of him had to say.

"You really care about her, don't you?" Draco asked.

"Of course. We've helped each other through some rough points, Luna and I." He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "My wife and I married young, and she had our daughter very soon after. Evanna was a sweet child, and I loved her dearly. She had a tendency towards the fantastical just like our Luna. She was very close friends with one of the Bones children, and we had let her spend the night for the first time that night. Death Eaters broke in and murdered every last one of them that night, even my little Evanna. She was nine. Then, when Luna's mother was brought into the ward eight or nine years later and this little pixie of a thing came with her, I saw that girl and knew before even talking to her that she was so much like Evanna. Luna was the same age then that my little girl had been, and they were so alike in so many ways. Her father was on an expedition in Sweden, and her mother was dead. We bonded, to say the least. So yes, to answer your question, I care about her as if she were my daughter."

He studied Draco while he processed the information before asking, "So why do you know it won't spread?"

Draco looked away from him, unsure of where to start, and how much to share. "During the last war, she was a prisoner in the dungeons at my family's manor. They experimented on her. They did... terrible things. She can... do certain things. I don't know all of it. But they changed her. Her magic might be unstable. I don't know how to explain why I think that, but I feel like something is finally coming out that was done to her then."

Smethwyck stared out the small window for a while. "Did you take part in these experiments?"

"Why is that the first thing I get asked? No. I didn't. I didn't even know she was being experimented on until a few months ago."

"Sounds to me like you need to look in the lab or wherever it was she was being experimented on," Smethwyck declared as he stood from his chair and headed towards Luna's room to check on her again.

Draco didn't even have a chance to argue. But, he told himself, if there was a chance that Luna could die, and he was the only one who could do something about it, he had better try. He left St. Mungo's, trying to formulate what he needed to say at the ministry. He would probably have to speak with Minister Shacklebolt himself, and that would be no easy task. He just HAD to get into the manor.

He walked into the ministry, and was greeted by voices hushing as he walked past. It didn't matter here that he wasn't his father, and that in the almost seven years since the war, he had more than proven himself as an upstanding member of wizarding society. Here, he was still Draco Malfoy, the boy who almost killed Dumbledore. He squared his shoulders and marched into the elevator that would take him to the floor where he could request an audience with Shacklebolt.

Upon his exit from the elevator, he walked straight into none other than Harry Potter. The dark haired man in front of him seemed annoyed by something, and seeing Draco, the crease between his eyebrows furrowed deeper. He stopped, frowning at him, as if waiting for him to say something. Draco watched him warily. He wasn't sure where he stood with Potter, and he didn't know what to expect.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Harry asked tiredly.

"I came to see Shacklebolt," he answered. "He still hangs out on the aurors' floor, usually, right?"

Harry looked puzzled. "Yeah, but what do you need to see the Minister of Magic for?"

Draco debated for a moment. "I need to get into the manor," he finally said hesitantly.

Potter looked at him as if he'd just watched him swallow a crumple horned snorcack whole. "The manor? Why? It isn't yours to get into anymore. Why after six years do you need in it, anyway?"

Draco swallowed. "It may save Luna's life."

"Explain. Now," Potter demanded.

Draco gave Harry the short version he had given Smethwyck, adding, "So I need to get into the lab Snape used to see if there is any information in there that I could use to help her."

Harry frowned. "Alright, let's go talk to Shacklebolt."

The blonde stared at him. "Just like that, you're going to help me?"

"Shut up and go, before I change my mind," Harry pushed.

With Harry's help, convincing Shacklebolt to let them go was probably easier than it would have been if Harry wasn't on Draco's side, but it was still difficult. The Minister wasn't keen on the idea of letting Draco in. He agreed, but only after much deliberation, and deciding to send one other person with them. Ronald Weasley. Shacklebolt knew how much Ron hated Draco, so he decided that he was the only one who would keep a watchful eye on him the entire time. He was right.

Ron was really starting to get on Draco's nerves. He was complaining the whole way, and kept jabbing Draco in the back with his wand as if they were escorting him as a criminal. Muttered declarations of "If you try anything…" and "Why does he even have to come? We're aurors, and we know why we're here, can't we do it without him?" were common. Draco tried to keep up a conversation with Harry, but it was awkward. The two had been "enemies" for so long that just getting into the groove of civility was a challenge. Finally, Draco got Harry talking a little bit more freely. He was surprised to realize how normal life had become for "The Boy Who Lived."

"Ginny's playing for the Holyhead Harpies, you know," he was saying. "But she's thinking she will be done very soon."

Ron interrupted. "I wish you two would explain why, I mean, she's not exactly too old to play! She's damn good, that sister of mine."

Harry laughed. "That she is, mate, but sometimes it's just time to move on to other things."

Draco looked at Harry carefully, noting the look of secrecy about his eyes. Maybe it would be better to not ask if Ginny was pregnant, even if that was the distinct vibe that Harry was giving. Ron was clueless enough not to notice, and it seemed like, if that was the case, Harry wanted to wait to tell anyone. He just kept the thought to himself, and listened as Harry talked about other things.

"She's thinking about taking the Flying instructor and Quidditch coach position at Hogwarts, actually, since Madame Hooch is retiring," Harry continued.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Why, so she can teach all the little twits how to love the sport as much as she does?"

Draco laughed loudly. "I seem to remember one little twit whose broom smacked him in the face during our first lesson!"

Ron's glare was murderous. They finally reached the gates of the manor, and Ron and Harry worked to undo the wards keeping Draco out. Once they got inside, they saw that the Manor was in a complete and utter state of disarray. Someone had obviously ransacked the place, and it was nowhere near what it had been last time Draco had been inside.

A flash of memory assaulted him. There was his mother, standing by the front staircase, a champagne flute in her hand. She was talking to one of her high society ladies while his father entertained the gentlemen in the parlor. He had been young, then, barely into his third year. This particular memory stood out to him because it was one of the only nights where his whole family had been home, and happy.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Harry asked him, snapping him out of his reverie.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "We need to go down to the dungeons, and to the lab Snape used down there."

The other two men followed him downstairs, stopping every once in a while to let them past more wards. This part of the house was very heavily guarded. When they reached the dungeons, a light speckling of dust hung in the air, but on closer inspection, they could tell it was ash. They went into the lab cautiously, finding everything inside completely obliterated by fiendfyre. There was nothing left. Not one scrap of parchment. Not one potion flask. Not even a quill. The room was coated in ash and soot. The three men sifted through the wreckage some, but there was nothing to find. They came out of the Manor empty handed; dejected and defeated.

"What else can we do?" Harry asked Draco. "There has to be something. You said that this might save Luna's life, so think. Snape was a personal friend of your family's, so could there be an office elsewhere that may hide information?"

Draco shook his head. "We can look, but I doubt it. Snape wasn't allowed upstairs much. Mother said that he brought too much work with him, and she wanted her upstairs to remain her home as much as possible. Father wanted to give him another place to work, but Mother wouldn't allow it."

"Wait a second," Ron said frantically. "You said this might save Luna's life?! What's wrong with Luna? No one told me why we were here!"

Draco looked at Harry, and then at the red headed man. "Her magic is unstable from experiments done on her while she was in captivity here. We were hoping to find something to get her magic back under control."

Ron stared at Draco suspiciously. "And why do you care? Are you actually dating her like the Prophet says?"

"No," Draco answered. "But she is my friend, and I don't want to lose her. She's very important to me. I've come to rely on her, and losing her would destroy me." His voice was thick by the time he had finished. He hadn't meant to say any of that out loud, but it had come anyway.

Shock registered on both Harry's and Ron's faces. "Well, mate, let's go see her, then," Harry said.

Draco was surprised at Harry using the word "mate," and his surprise kept him from formulating a response other than a nod. The three of them set off for St. Mungo's, Ron intending to grab Hermione from the ward where she was working today on the way up to Luna's room. Hermione greeted Draco with a handshake, which just added to his feeling that this entire situation was absurd. The four of them reached the Dai Llewellyn ward, and came across a much less worried than expected Healer in Charge.

"I've been waiting for you," he announced. "She is awake."

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**PLEASE read and review? I'm begging you! I did a ScoRose oneshot, and if I get 5 reviews on this chapter, I will post it!**


	13. Chapter 13

Luna was sitting up in her hospital bed, picking at the edge of the blankets. She was trying so very hard not to focus on the wrackspurts in the room, even though there were so many of them. She wasn't succeeding very well, and it had her almost in tears. She thought she was going to go crazy if she stayed in here much longer. She hadn't seen Healer Smethwyck since he had run a whole bunch of tests on her right after she woke up, but she desperately wanted to ask him to move her to another room. Any other room.

Finally, she heard his voice coming down the corridor, along with at least two other male voices. Luna wanted to jump out of bed to intercept him and ask about being moved, but she was still woozy. Jumping was not in her immediate future. The voices came around the corner into the room, and Luna burst into tears when she saw Draco, along with Harry and Ron. Even though she shouldn't, she pushed herself out of bed and walked towards them with her arms wide. Harry opened his arms to embrace her, but she walked straight past him and threw her arms around Draco.

"I can't stay in this room!" she wailed.

Draco patted her back awkwardly in surprise, and steadied her when standing almost became too much for her. Her body heat was still unnaturally high, and her eyes were an icier blue than usual. It seemed like the color was caught somewhere between her usual blue, and the white of her magic. She cried there, in his arms, and he scooped her up, holding her tight to his chest.

"Healer Smethwyck?" he called. "What's wrong with this room?"

Smethwyck came back in. "Wrong with it? I'm not sure what you mean."

Luna sobbed, clinging to Draco's collar. "My mum, Draco. This… this room was… where she…"

Healer Smethwyck gaped at Luna. "Oh, Merlin. Luna, I'm so sorry."

The older man quickly ushered them into another room, and Draco lowered Luna into the bed. She looked up at him gratefully, and he looked away, an awkward feeling settling in his chest. He couldn't do this. 'She needs stability,' he thought to himself. 'She needs someone to love her through all of this, and I just don't know how. I've never loved anyone before. I can't hurt her like that. I can't let it get to the point where she finds out that I can't love her.' He kissed the back of her hand, and left, his footsteps carrying him briskly away from the one person that he had ever let not only into his life, but into his heart.

It was hours later when Hermione Weasley found him pacing in St. Mungo's canteen. She didn't say a word, just walked up to him, gripped his shoulder and spun him towards her, and let fly with a right hook to his jaw. He glared at her, rubbing his jaw gingerly. The petite witch glared back with a ferocity that he knew meant a probably well-earned lecture was coming. He had witnessed enough of the ones she had given Harry and Ron in Hogwarts to know that much.

"Just get it over with. I'm a bad person for leading her on, right? Or is it simply because of who I "am" that you don't want me near her? Guess what, Gra... Weasley? You don't have anything to worry about there. I'm leaving before I can hurt her."

Draco watched Hermione sullenly as she narrowed her eyes and folded her arms across the front of her healer's robes. "You're really thick, aren't you?" she asked in a surprisingly soft tone. "Even if you don't fancy her the way she obviously fancies you, you're the best thing that's ever happened to her. Your friendship is valuable, and if you think for one second that taking away Luna's dearest friend is the best thing for her, maybe we should take you upstairs to a room of your own." Her eyes flashed, and her tone sharpened. "Luna needs you, you idiot. You left her weeping up there in that room without asking how she was feeling, without confronting what happened, and without giving her a chance to talk to you."

His own eyes flashed, and he pushed her away from him. "Say it. Say what you're thinking. What you're just dying to call me."

He advanced a step forward, towering over the obviously unfazed brunette. She just looked up at him with sadness. "You ran away, Draco. If you don't want to be treated like a coward, don't act like one."

It seemed like all of the air left his sails. He backed away a few steps, and sat down at one of the tables. Hermione sat opposite him, watching. Finally, she asked him, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Draco's answering chuckle held no real mirth. "What is there to talk about? I think you summed it up pretty well."

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. "You are such a prat! I'm offering you friendship here, Draco Malfoy. So listen. If you don't want it, fine, but don't you dare abandon Luna. If that means you distance yourself for a while, whatever. But Malfoy, you are involved here, and we need your help to save her life." She pulled a muggle pen from behind her ear, and a notepad from a pocket in her robes. "So here's what we're going to do. I've handed in my papers to officially transfer to the Dai Llewellyn ward. I will take care of Luna, and you boys will check Spinner's End for any notes Snape may have left there. Be thorough. My brother-in-law Bill is going to be asked to go with you. He's a curse-breaker for Gringotts, and he and Fleur happen to be visiting with their daughter Victoire. So if Bill agrees to go, I would rather leave Ron home, if you don't mind. He's convinced that you just proved him right when you walked out."

Draco raised an eyebrow, inviting her to continue.

She rolled her eyes. "Ronald believes that you're a coward, and always have been. That you are incapable of love, and that for some reason, you are using Luna." Hermione hesitated, unwilling to say the next bit, but knowing it was better to get it out. "He says that he wouldn't be surprised if you were one of them that... used her, and you're only back for more of... that."

Draco stared at her, stunned anger pouring out of him. "I never touched her," He said firmly. "Never,"

"Because she's a blood traitor?" Hermione tested.

His fist crashed down onto the table. "Because she didn't deserve any of it! Luna should never have been there. She isn't meant to be caged!" He shook his head, his breathing heavy.

Hermione gave him a genuine smile. "Congratulations, Draco Malfoy. You have passed my first test." She extended her hand. "Welcome to the group."

He shook her hand, a sardonic look on his face. "You know, Weasley, for some reason you still infuriate me. I get defensive, and I want to punch something. Not you, just... something inanimate." He stood from his chair. "And I didn't leave. I couldn't. I was here all along."

The brunette studied him. "Maybe not, but she needed her best friend to comfort her in that moment, and you left. What are you so afraid of, anyway?"

Draco's silver eyes met her brown and locked their gazes. "That I won't be able to be what she needs," He said with complete honesty.

She pursed her lips. "What about what she wants?"

"I can't be that, either."

"Even if all she wants is your heart?"

"I can't give something that isn't there. Now. Can we contact this brother-in-law of yours so I can make sure she'll be alright?" Draco turned towards the door, gesturing for her to get a move on.

Hermione stood still for a moment, contemplating the irony of what he had said. She gave a small sigh, and followed him up the lift to Luna's ward. Luna was asleep, this time perfectly naturally, and with tear stains streaking down her pale cheeks. Draco stood over her, a troubled expression marking his features. He wiped the tears away with his fingertips and pulled the blanket up more snugly around her slight shoulders before turning back to Hermione.

"Shall we go find Potter?"


	14. Chapter 14

**I am SO sorry for the wait! I'm back, and motivated again, and will hopefully be updating once a week, either on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. The story is going to pick up a little bit here, and VERY quickly. I have a plan for the entire story, so that may reassure you some that this story isn't abandoned. Chapter 15 may come to you tomorrow, if I can manage it. I will try my best!**

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Draco was feeling incredibly awkward. He was preparing to sleep on the Potters' couch, and Ginny had just gotten home from practice. She took one look at him and stormed up the stairs to the bedroom that she shared with Harry. Draco knew she was going to start yelling any second, and he kind of wished that he hadn't taken Harry up on his offer of staying over so that they could get a faster start in the morning.

"Harry James Potter, what the freaking bloody hell?!" Ginny bellowed once she found Harry. "You told me that you had someone helping on a case staying over. You didn't tell me it was Draco Bloody Malfoy!"

Harry sighed. "Gin, relax. It's not like I've asked him to live with us. It's one night, and we're leaving first thing in the morning."

"Oh, yeah, one night in the house with your pregnant wife, Harry."

"Ginny!" Harry said warningly. "Great job. Just shout that out there. We were trying to keep that a secret until the party."

"Well, you are the one who brought a death eater into the house!"

"He's not going to do anything, love. He's here to help us figure out how to save Luna."

Draco heard a sigh and the creak of a floorboard as Ginny moved to sit down on the bed. "How is she?"

Now he strained to hear Potter's response, because even he hadn't known what Smethwyck had been able to find out. He had been in the canteen when everyone else had been told.

"We don't completely know. As close as we can tell, when she was a captive during the war, they were trying to develop something with magic to make them more powerful, and allow them to do wandless magic. She was an experiment, Gin. Her magic isn't stable, and it's burning her up. We're making a trip to Spinner's End tomorrow to see if there are any notes or at least clues left over to help her."

"And what is it doing to her? Is she going to be okay? How badly is it burning her up?"

"She's in the most dangerous ward at Mungo's, so I would say not the best. And she has basically been in and out of a coma. She's still way too hot, and if her magic isn't brought under control, it could kill her. If it doesn't kill her, Smethwyck thinks she may become a squib. Her chances aren't good."

Draco turned away, settling himself into the soft cushions of the sofa. He had known almost all of what Harry had said, but hearing it made it that much more difficult to face. He lay awake for a long time, unable to quiet his mind for sleep. When he did finally drift off, it was into a dream.

Hermione sat across from him at the table in the canteen. She spoke to him, telling him all of the terrifying facts about the outlook for Luna. She fell silent, scrutinizing him, and he couldn't turn away from her gaze. It seemed to last forever, the bushy-haired witch keeping his gaze firmly locked on hers. He couldn't pull away; it was almost like she had cast legilimens on him, and everything was bared to her.

"She is dying. She loves you. All she wants is to have you love her back. Which you do. You love Luna, Draco. Who are you to deny a dying girl what she wants and needs most? Go to her. Tell her how you feel. Make her happy so that she doesn't leave this place with that rejection."

Draco woke up with a jolt. Harry was shaking his shoulders. "Malfoy, wake up. Luna's fever is spiking again, and she's had more seizures. She hasn't gone comatose, but she's asking for you. Smethwyck thinks you ought to come in, just in case... well, in case it's too late by the time we're done at Spinner's End." The last part was said in a quiet, broken voice.

Draco flew to his feet. "I have to tell her."

Harry was confused, watching Draco scramble around, pulling on his shoes, and running for the door. "Tell her what? Not what you overheard last night?"

Draco was also confused for a moment, until he remembered Ginny's accidental announcement of their pregnancy. "No, mate," He said, turning back to look at him. "I have to tell her I love her."

And suddenly, he knew that he did. He could see what everyone else had seen. He loved the wisp of a blonde more than he knew a person was capable of loving. Draco had woken up knowing what he had been denying himself, and he couldn't deny it any longer. Luna Lovegood, the girl everyone called Loony, was all he wanted. All he needed. It felt like the most important thing in the world that he get to her and tell her. Even more importantly, he needed to make her better. He would cherish whatever time he had with her, but he wanted it to be a long time.

When he stepped out of the floo in the Dai Llewellyn ward, he immediately took off running for Luna's room. He wrestled with the door handle for a moment, and flung the door open with a crash that woke Luna from her nap. She looked up at him with the sweetest, sleepiest smile he had ever seen, and it made his heart beat so much faster. Her eyes we're blue. Blue like they were supposed to be. Luna weakly pushed herself into a sitting position and reached out a hand to him. He took it, trying to ignore the heat in her skin.

"Luna," He began. "I'm sorry."

She shushed him with one dreadfully warm finger on his lips. "Come here?" she asked softly.

Draco leaned down to her, enveloping her in his arms. She shook, and he realized that she was crying. He pulled away enough to brush her hair from her face, and smooth the wetness from her cheeks. His mercurial gaze held her blue eyes fast, and she sobbed harder.

"Shh, Luna, it's okay. I'm going to figure this out, and you'll be better in no time."

She managed a ghost of a smile before her body succumbed to another seizure. Draco held her head still as nurses rushed into the room, having been alerted by the monitoring spells. When the jolting tremors finally stopped, Luna was still. Her chest barely rose and fell with each breath, and her eyes were closed. His beautiful Luna was comatose once again.

Quietly, Draco shifted his arms from around Luna and settled her into her pillows. He tucked the blanket around her, kissed her forehead, and slipped away. Now, more than ever, he was determined to find out what he could do to save her life. He found Harry down the hall, talking to Smethwyck.

"We contacted her father," the Healer was saying. "He's travelling, as usual, but he is leaving first thing in the morning via portkey."

Harry nodded, and when he saw Draco, he nodded towards him in acknowledgement. "Ready to go, mate?"

The blonde man stood silently, seeming to fight something. Then, he shook his head; almost imperceptibly at first, but vehemently by the time he finished.

"No. Not quite. Hippocrates, do you know where Hermione is?"

"Down the hall, brewing some dreamless sleep potion, and a few others that may help. Third door on the right."

Draco sprinted away. He opened the door after a quiet knock. "Mrs. Weasley, I need you to know that I finally figured it out. I love her. I'm going to take the best care of her possible. I'm going to figure this out. I need her to be okay. Please, help me. I know she's your friend. So please, keep her going until I get back." He enveloped the stunned witch in a crushing hug, and then ran out the door, grabbing Potter on his way past.

The two of them flooed to the Burrow, where Bill was waiting for them. Ginny had her brother Ron at wandpoint, threatening him with her bat bogey hex if he tried anything. She looked up at Draco. "If you really love her like you said this morning, you can't be all bad. But if you hurt her, I will skin you alive. Without magic."

Draco gave her a smile and a nod. "Mrs. Potter, if I hurt her, you would be too late, because I would kill myself."

Ginny couldn't help but smile. "What are you waiting for, boys? Go save her!"


End file.
